


Inquisition in India

by PrairieChzHead (msannomalley)



Series: Lost Causes [9]
Category: The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham & Kathryn Kenny
Genre: Characters being meta without even knowing what that is, Even fictional characters write fan fiction, Fic within a Fic, Fluff and Humor, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 01:26:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12853749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msannomalley/pseuds/PrairieChzHead
Summary: When Dan and Michelle move into their new apartment, Michelle finds a Lucy Radcliffe story she wrote as a teen-ager. Unintentional hilarity ensues. This is a "fic within a fic".





	Inquisition in India

**Saturday, June 1, 1974**  
**Long Beach, California**

It was moving day. Among the rooms of the two bedroom upper apartment, boxes containing all the worldly possessions of Dan and Michelle Mangan were scattered, waiting to be unpacked and the items put in their places in their new apartment. For two months, these boxes sat in storage, waiting for the day when the newlyweds would be able to move out of their temporary living arrangements and into their own place.

For the first two months of their marriage, Dan and Michelle lived in a dumpy motel room that rented out rooms by the hour, day, week, or month. Saying that this place wasn't the greatest of places to live was an understatement. The walls were thin, the electrical wiring was often faulty, and the room was musty, no matter how often it was cleaned.

They subsisted off of macaroni and cheese and ramen for two months because it didn't need to be refrigerated and it was something easily cooked on a hotplate. Occasionally, the newlyweds, tired of what they had to eat, would venture out somewhere for something more substantial. But they were still trying to conserve their cash. Not only did they need money for the security deposit on a new apartment, they also needed to get furniture, too.

Dan went out during the day to look for a job. It took him about three weeks to find one. He landed a job at a warehouse, loading and unloading goods from eighteen-wheelers. The pay was good and once Dan's ninety days were up, he'd get into the union and the benefits were also very good. Since they only had one vehicle, their green truck, Michelle was often stuck back at the motel and if she wanted to venture out, she had to take the bus. Michelle only went out when necessary. She didn't feel very safe waiting at the bus stop in front of that motel by herself. Since Dan found a job as quickly as he did, they decided that Michelle would continue looking for a job for herself once they were settled into a more permanent living situation and they got another vehicle.

Once Dan started working again, the couple started hunting for an apartment. They found a two bedroom upper in Long Beach that had new appliances, including a dishwasher. The rent was reasonable, too. So they put down the money, took possession of the apartment, and they got themselves some furniture, too. Now today, they were moving all of their things into their new home.

Both Dan and Michelle were in their bedroom, unpacking boxes and putting the contents away. Dan was putting some things in the closet, while Michelle kneeled on the floor in front of an open box that contained an assortment of odds and ends that belonged to her.

"Man," she said. "I can't believe I saved these." She pulled a stack of magazines out of the box. "These have to be at least ten years old." Dan turned around and Michelle held up the magazines so he could see.

 _"Tiger Beat?"_  Dan hooted. "You actually read that?"

"So?" Michelle replied with a slight bit of defensiveness. "What's wrong with that?"

Dan came over to her and knelt on the floor next to her. "It's just that you never struck me as the 'teenybopper' type."

"I wasn't the 'screaming my head off and wetting myself' hysterical type," Michelle said. "But I still bought the magazines." Then she added, "The girls that screamed used to get on my nerves, though."

Dan picked up one of the magazines and read from the cover. " _'Do You Have What It Takes to be Paul's Special Girl?'_ " he read out loud. Then he started laughing. "As if that would ever happen!"

"Yeah, it's pretty dumb, isn't it?" Michelle said. "But all the girls lived and died by this sort of thing. You should have seen how many girls absolutely hated Jane Asher."

"Oh, I think I have an idea," Dan replied, remembering the time when Di Lynch cut Jane out of all the pictures in her magazines. Dan flipped open the magazine and he started laughing again when he saw that someone had drawn devil horns and a pointed beard all over the woman in question.

"Did you do this?" Dan asked his wife.

"No," Michelle said. "My friend Jane did that. She was the one who had the massive crush on Paul."

"Jane?" Dan asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

Michelle laughed. "Yep, Jane. She used to say that Paul was with the wrong Jane."

Dan continued to thumb through the magazine, occasionally pausing to laugh at something he thought was silly or at the running commentary and captions someone had penciled into the magazine. Dan recognized the handwriting on that part as Michelle's, but it was more girlish and not as graceful as her handwriting was now. He chuckled at some of the captions.

At one point, he put the magazine down and started laughing so hard, he held his sides. Michelle craned her neck to see what Dan was laughing at and she laughed a little, too. The magazine had been kind enough to print the lyrics to the song  _Michelle_ , but someone had crossed out the name Michelle each time it appeared and replaced it with the name Jane.

"Gee, I wonder who did this?" Dan said when he composed himself enough.

"She was so mad at me when that song came out. Jane was really jealous, too," Michelle said. "And I had nothing to do with it, either," she added with a laugh. "She'd say, 'I can't believe he wrote a song about you'. Telling her that I didn't like that song didn't help much."

"So tell me," Dan said. "Why don't you like that song?"

"The name thing," Michelle replied.

"You said that already," Dan said. "But seriously, why don't you like that song?"

"Every time it came on, whether it was on the radio or on the jukebox, people would turn and stare at me," Michelle said. "It was so embarrassing. It would happen to people named Cathy when  _Cathy's Clown_  was playing, or to one girl named Sherrie when  _Sherry Baby_  would play. Everyone would turn and stare at the girl in question. And you just wanted to crawl under the table until the song was over, too. Then," she added, "there's also the fact that when a famous rock musician puts a girl's name into a song, there's a standard that every girl in the world with that name has to live up to."

"Oh," Dan said. "I see." Michelle thought he sounded a little disappointed.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Dan said.

"Don't give me 'nothing'," Michelle said. "What is it?"

"You'll think it's stupid," Dan said, a little embarrassed.

"How do you know I'll think it's stupid?" Michelle asked.

"Because you will," Dan replied. "Forget it."

"No," Michelle said. "I'm not going to forget it. What is it? Come on. Tell me."

"Okay," Dan said. "It's just that I do like that song."

"What's so stupid about that?" Michelle wondered. "Is it because I don't like it?"

"Yeah, sort of," Dan said.

"Well just because I don't like something and you do doesn't mean it's stupid," Michelle said. "Nor does it mean I think less of you because you like something I don't."

"That's not all of it," Dan said, putting the magazine down. "It's just that I think that song is kind of special," he said. "Because it does have your name in it."

"Oh," Michelle replied. "That's not stupid, either." She smiled at him.

"There's more," Dan said a little sheepishly.

"There is?" Michelle wondered.

"Yeah," Dan said. "I sort of used to listen to it a lot after you left last year. One night, when I was kind of drunk, I called the radio station in Scottsbluff and requested it, hoping that somehow you'd be able to hear it and then you'd come back."

"Really?" Michelle said, a bit taken aback by this. She never thought of Dan as being particularly sentimental, but sometimes he'd show signs of being that way, like when he went out and got that tattoo after their wedding.

"Uh-huh," Dan said. "I missed you."

"Oh," Michelle replied softly. Then she leaned over and gave Dan a kiss on the cheek. "That's so sweet," she said with a smile. "And it's not stupid, either."

Dan set the magazine back on the stack with the others. "So if I decided one day to call up the radio station and request it and have them dedicate it to you, you wouldn't get mad about it?"

"No," Michelle said. "I wouldn't get mad about it." She smiled at Dan again. "If I had known you felt this way, I wouldn't have said no about having that song at our wedding."

"Really?" Dan asked.

"Really," Michelle said. Then she looked at the boxes strewn about the room and sighed. "I suppose we'd better get back to unpacking or we'll never get this done." She reached into the box and she pulled out a couple of books. "Ah, here's some of my Lucy books," she said. Michelle set the books aside and then pulled out a few more. She continued doing this until all sixteen Lucy Radcliffe books were in a stack on the floor. Michelle then took the books and set them on the small bookshelf that was in the bedroom. Then she reached into the box and pulled out an old spiral notebook. Michelle frowned a bit. "I wonder what's in here?" she said.

"You're quite the packrat," Dan said. "You saved your old school notebooks?"

"No," Michelle said. "At least I don’t think so. I never had a use for all of my old chemistry homework anyway." She looked at the cover again. "I wonder what's in here?"

Michelle opened the notebook. When she saw what was written on the inside cover, she visibly cringed. "Oh no," she said.

"Oh no, what?" Dan wondered.

"I thought this was long gone," Michelle replied. She wrinkled her nose at the notebook.

"What?" Dan said, craning his neck to see inside the notebook.

"I wrote my own Lucy Radcliffe stories when I was a kid," Michelle replied. "I thought that these got thrown out."

"You wrote your own Lucy Radcliffe stories?" Dan wondered.

"Yeah," Michelle said. "I did."

"Can I read it?" Dan asked.

"I don't know," Michelle said doubtfully. "They're pretty bad."

"They can't be any worse than some of the Cosmo stories my friend Mart used to write," Dan said. "Are you sure you won't let me read it?"

"They're embarrassing," Michelle said.

"Hey," Dan said. "I just admitted something I thought was embarrassing to you and you didn't think it was so bad. Besides," he added with a saucy look. "We're married now. We're supposed to share stuff, remember?"

"Okay," Michelle said, giving in. "But I have to warn you, they're really bad. Just thinking about them makes me cringe. And I was a die-hard Stan fan, too."

"Stan?" Dan wondered.

"Stan Donnegan," Michelle said. "He was one of the agents that worked with Lucy Radcliffe. There were seven agents all together, counting Lucy of course. They all worked for the WGB."

"The WGB?"

"World Guardian Bureau," Michelle explained. "There was Lucy, of course. And then there was her best friend, Bunny Keelor. And then there was Lucy's other friend, Vi Pynch, although I never understood why Lucy was friends with Vi because Vi wailed a lot and was scared of everything.

"And then there were Lucy's brothers, Ryan and Bart Radcliffe," Michelle continued. "Then there was Lucy's boyfriend, Tim Main, although the author never actually wrote that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Tim gave Lucy his super secret agent decoder ring as a sign of affection, but all he seemed to do was just look at her fondly," Michelle laughed. "And then there was Stan, who didn't seem to do much at all because Miss Sisk always told him he had to stay back at Headquarters in case Lucy and the others got into trouble. But they never got into enough trouble that they needed to call Stan in."

"Who is Miss Sisk?" Dan wondered.

"She was in charge of them," Michelle said. "And she wore a lot of tweed and she wore sensible shoes. But they traveled a lot and saved the world. There was the  _Mission in Munich_ , the  _Burglary in Bolivia_ , the  _Robbery in Romania_ , and some  _Intrigue in Iceland_."

"I see," Dan said, thoroughly amused.

"Most of the girls thought that Tim was the living end," Michelle said. "But some of us liked Stan better because he was tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious. There used to be some very heated arguments among us on who Lucy belonged with. Some people thought that she should be with Stan instead."

"You guys actually argued about this?" Dan asked before he started laughing.

"Yes," Michelle said. "Although it seems kind of dumb now when I look at it. You know, arguing over the lives of fictional characters in children's books." She laughed. "But some of those arguments got pretty nasty sometimes. Sometimes they were even nastier than 'Which Beatle is cuter?'"

Dan started laughing even harder. When he composed himself, he asked, "So which camp did you fall in?"

"I was a Stan girl," Michelle said. "But I wanted him for myself. I didn't care who Lucy belonged with." She handed Dan the notebook.

Dan opened it. " _Inquisiton in India_ ," he read. "Am I going to be sorry I read this?"

"That depends," Michelle said. "Are you still going to respect me in the morning?" she asked with a grin.

"It can't be  _that bad_ ," Dan said.

"We'll see if you think that when you're done reading it," Michelle said.

 

 

> _Secret Agent Giselle O'Ryan of the WGB, or World Guardian Bureau, sashayed into headquarters even though she was just getting in from a night out on the town. She was a half an hour late for the morning briefing. Even though she had been out all night, her appearance belied that fact. Giselle's Chanel suit was without a crease, not one single strand of auburn colored bouffant hair was out of place, and her pillbox hat was on her head in the same place she put it when she went out._

"I thought you said that there were only seven agents in the WGB," Dan said to Michelle. "Who is this person?"

"Someone I made up," Michelle replied.

Giselle O'Ryan?" Dan asked with an amused look

"Hey," Michelle replied with a wink. "I never said I was original."

 

 

 

> _"You're late, Agent O'Ryan," Miss Sisk said. Miss Sisk was in charge of the eight agents in the WGB and she liked to wear a lot of tweed clothes and sensible shoes. "Try to be on time. The world depends on us being punctual."_
> 
> _"I'm sorry I'm late," Giselle apologized. "I lost track of the time."_
> 
> _"What were you doing last night?" Agent Bunny Keelor asked excitedly._
> 
> _Giselle smiled. "I was at the Peppermint Lounge. It was so fab, Bunny," Giselle gushed. "You should have been there! I danced all night. Paul thinks I'm a really good dancer."_
> 
> _"Paul?" asked Agent Vi Pynch with her eyebrows raised._
> 
> _"McCartney," Giselle replied with a smile._

Dan set the notebook down and began to laugh so hard he was soon holding his sides.

"It's not that funny," Michelle protested.

"Yes, it is," Dan replied between gasps of laughter.

 

 

 

> _"You met Paul McCartney?" Bunny squealed. "Oh, Giselle, you're so lucky! So tell me, what's he like?" Agents Ryan Radcliffe and Bart Radcliffe merely looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Ryan and Bart were Lucy's brothers._
> 
> _"Well," Giselle began, but she was interrupted._
> 
> _"Save it for later, Agent O'Ryan," Miss Sisk replied briskly. "It's time for the briefing." Miss Sisk pulled out a dossier._
> 
> _"There's trouble afoot in India," their mentor began. "Jewels, gold artifacts, and precious silks are disappearing mysteriously."_
> 
> _"Hmm," Lucy Radcliffe, the eighteen year old red head with the peaches and cream complexion said thoughtfully. "It is mysterious. Are there any clues?"_
> 
> _"The only intelligence we've been able to gather is that all these items have been stolen by men and that Pat Murphy, the nasty double agent, has been seen in the area. The thefts have been mainly happening in Calcutta." Miss Sisk closed the folder and looked squarely at Lucy._

"Who is Pat Murphy?" Dan wondered.

"The Nasty Double Agent," Michelle replied. "During  _Intrigue in Iceland_ , she hypnotized Tim to make him think he was in love with her as a way to distract Lucy from finding out that Pat was responsible for stealing a very valuable gold talisman from a group of simple sheep herders."

Dan gave her a strange look.

"All the Tim fans just  _hate_  her," Michelle replied. "But Tim made up for it at the end when he gave Lucy his secret agent decoder ring as a sign of his affection."

 

 

 

> _"Lucy it is up to you to stop Pat Murphy," Miss Sisk said. "And return the jewels, the gold, and the silks to their rightful owners."_
> 
> _"Now wait a minute," Agent Tim Main interrupted. "This is too dangerous for Lucy to do alone." Tim was sort of Lucy's boyfriend, but not really because even though he gave her his special agent decoder pin as a sign of his affection, he never asked Lucy to go steady with him._

"But isn't that her job?" Dan asked. "To do all this dangerous spy stuff? So why should this guy have a problem with it?"

"Overprotective, I guess," Michelle said. "I could never figure that out, either, especially since in some of the books, Tim had no problem with what Lucy did. But that's why a lot of the Stan fans think that Lucy should be with him instead."

"Because of the overprotective thing?" Dan asked.

"Uh-huh," Michelle nodded.

 

 

 

> _"No, you wait a minute, Tim Main," Lucy said, her blue eyes sparking with indignation. "I am not some helpless female here. I have brought down some dangerous criminals. I am a trained professional. This is my job."_
> 
> _"Then I'm going with you," Tim said. "And don't argue about it."_
> 
> _"You're all going," Miss Sisk replied. "This mission is going to require all of your intelligence."_
> 
> _"Even me?" Agent Stan Donnegan asked hopefully._
> 
> _"Sorry, Stan, not this time," Miss Sisk. "I'm going to need your help here." Then she turned to Giselle. "Agent O'Ryan, you will be staying at headquarters as well."_
> 
> _"Why?" Giselle said._
> 
> _"You need a reminder on the value of being on time for briefings," Miss Sisk replied. Then she turned to the other six agents. "This is a dangerous mission and you will need all the luck you can get. It is up to you to stop Pat Murphy once and for all. Good luck. The world is depending on you."_
> 
> _"We won't let you down," Lucy said to the older woman. She turned to her comrades. "Right?"_
> 
> _"Right," they all chorused._
> 
> _"Let's go then," Lucy said. Then the six of them left the room and were on their way to India._
> 
>  
> 
> _Traveling to India in the WGB Jet took only a half an hour. Soon, Lucy and the others were in Calcutta. They were able to secure a place to stay at the estate of a rich doctor friend of Bunny Keelor's father, who was a rich head of a corporation. During the flight over, the agents decided that their cover would be that they were all American tourists on vacation. After they all got settled in, they decided to take a walk around and see if there was anything suspicious going on._
> 
> _Meanwhile, back at headquarters, Agents Stan Donnegan and Giselle O'Ryan were in the communications room. Miss Sisk told them that they were supposed to be there just in case Lucy or one of the others tried to get in contact with them._
> 
> _Stan pulled out a book and began reading it. Giselle propped her elbow on the table and put her cheek in her hand. She stared at the blinking lights of the communications console in a really bored way._
> 
> _"Is this all you do all the time?" she asked Stan. "How can you stand it? This is Dullsville with a capital D."_
> 
> _"I can't," Stan replied. "That's why I've got this." He placed a finger inside the book, temporarily marking the page he was on, then he held the book up for Giselle to see. "Nothing ever happens. Lucy and the others can handle themselves pretty well. They don't call back here very much."_
> 
> _"Oh," Giselle replied. "What else do you do?"_
> 
> _Stan dog-eared the page and closed his book. "Not much else, I'm afraid. Sometimes I do the New York Times crossword puzzle or stare at all the blinking lights." He heaved a big sigh. "You're right, Giselle. This is Dullsville with a capital D."_
> 
> _Both agents heaved a big sigh and slumped dejectedly over the table. The Giselle perked up because she had an idea._
> 
> _"Is there a radio here?" she asked._
> 
> _"Over there," Stan said, pointing to a radio. "But Miss Sisk will blow her stack if she finds out we've turned it on."_
> 
> _"What's the point of having a radio if you can't listen to it?" Giselle asked._
> 
> _"True," Stan admitted. "Okay, I'll turn it on. But why do you want to have the radio on?"_
> 
> _"So we can dance, silly," Giselle replied. "You do know how to dance, don't you?"_
> 
> _"Not really," Stan replied. "I danced with Lucy once when we were investigating the Burglary in Bolivia. Lucy taught me how to do the tango."_
> 
> _Giselle waved her hand, dismissing that. "The tango is for squares," she said. "I'm going to teach you some real dancing."_
> 
> _"Like what?" Stan wondered._
> 
> _"Like the Twist," Giselle explained. "Stuff like that." Then she said, "Why were you dancing the tango if you were supposed to be investigating the Burglary in Bolivia? I thought you always had to stay here."_
> 
> _"We were undercover," Stan explained. "Miss Sisk said they needed all seven of us_
> 
> _"Oh," Giselle said. "Are you going to turn on the radio?"_
> 
> _"Okay," Stan replied. He got up from his chair and he went over to the radio and he turned it on and a Dave Clark Five song was playing._
> 
> _"Aren't you going to show me how to dance?" Stan asked Giselle._
> 
> _"Okay," she said, getting up from the chair. She stood in front of Stan. "Do what I do," she said and then she started dancing. Stan copied what Giselle was doing and then Giselle said that he was doing just fine._
> 
> _"You're a pretty good dancer," Giselle said._
> 
> _"Thank you," Stan replied_
> 
> _They kept on dancing because it was much more fun than sitting around and watching the lights blink._
> 
> _Giselle thought that Stan was a pretty good dancer and she also thought that Stan was very cute, too. In fact, she thought that Stan was much cuter than any of the Beatles, even Paul McCartney. She even thought that Stan was cuter than Little Joe on Bonanza. She wondered and she hoped that maybe Stan would think that she was cute and then he might ask her out on a date sometime._

Dan set the notebook down and started laughing again.

"What?" Michelle said.

"'Cuter than any of the Beatles? Cuter than Little Joe on  _Bonanza?_ '" Dan hooted. "You had a thing for Little Joe, too?"

Michelle shifted a little bit. "Yeah, so?" she said. "Like you didn't have the hots for some famous chick."

"Never said I didn't," Dan said.

"So who was it?" Michelle wanted to know.

"It's not important," Dan said.

"Yes, it is," Michelle replied. "Who was it? Lesley Gore? Hayley Mills? Shelley Fabares?"

"No," Dan said hotly. "Why do you want to know anyway?"

"Like you said before, we're married now. We're supposed to share everything," Michelle replied with a saucy grin. "So who was it?"

"Brigitte Bardot," Dan mumbled.

"What? I couldn't hear you," Michelle said teasingly.

"Brigitte Bardot," Dan said again, this time a little louder.

Michelle wrinkled her nose. "What's so bad about that?"

"I guess it's not that bad," Dan said. "I didn't know what you'd think about it, though. I mean, because she looks the way she does." He picked up the notebook and resumed reading.

 

 

 

> _Stan thought Giselle was a pretty and cute girl, but he was too shy to ask her out and he didn't think she would want to go out on a date with him, especially since she went to the Peppermint Lounge the night before and danced with Paul McCartney._
> 
> _Suddenly, without any warning, a shrill, piercing alarm went off._
> 
> _"Uh-oh," Stan said._
> 
> _"What?" Giselle wondered_
> 
> _"Lucy and the gang are in trouble," he said._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Back in Calcutta, Lucy and the others went out for a walk. Lucy saw a suspicious looking man who was taking some precious jewels right off the neck of some woman. Lucy and the others ran after the man and he led them to a hidden cave. Inside the hidden cave, they found the Nasty Double Agent Pat Murphy._
> 
> _"I knew you would come here Lucy Radcliffe," Pat Murphy cackled with a toss of her blonde bouffant hair. "You won't stop me. And your friends won't stop me either."_

"'I'll get you my pretty,'" Dan said in a Wicked Witch of the West cackle. "'And your little dog, too!'"

Michelle tried to give him a withering glance, but she ended up laughing a little instead.

 

 

 

> _"Why are you stealing all the gold and the jewels and the artifacts and the silks?" Lucy demanded._
> 
> _"It's a ruse," Pat replied with a sniff._
> 
> _"Rouge?" Vi wondered. "What does rouge have to do with this?"_

"Please don't tell me she's  _that dumb_ ," Dan said.

"I would, but then I'd be lying," Michelle explained. "Vi always mixed up words. She could be quite the bubblehead sometimes." Michelle sighed. "I suppose, though, every book has to have the empty-headed female type in there."

 

 

 

> _"Ruse," Bart Radcliffe explained. "In other words, it's a trap. Pat doesn't want the goods. She wants something else. She was just pretending to steal the goods to get this other thing."_
> 
> _"That's right, Smart Boy," Pat said. "You've figured it out. Almost."_
> 
> _"But what does she really want?" wondered Bunny._
> 
> _"That's easy," Pat replied. She stared at the red-haired, freckle-faced, husky, yet supple agent named Tim Main._
> 
> _"You'll never get your hands on Tim," Lucy declared. "He gave me his special agent decoder ring."_
> 
> _"So?" Pat said. Then she touched the brooch she had pinned to her dress. The brooch had a pearl stone that turned this very weird shade of green._
> 
> _"What is she doing?" wondered Ryan._
> 
> _"Better yet," Bart said. "What is Tim doing?"_
> 
> _The five agents looked at their fellow agent. Tim's arms were stretched out in front of him and he started walking slowly, sort of like zombies do or Frankenstein does in the movies you see at the drive-in._
> 
> _"Tim!" Lucy exclaimed. "Don't do it! Pat Murphy is a nasty double agent and not a nice girl!"_

Dan set the notebook down and started laughing again.

"What?" Michelle wanted to know.

Dan pointed at a sentence on the notebook page. "I just got a mental picture of this guy walking like a zombie," he said between chuckles. "I wonder if he eats brains, too?" he added with a wink.

"Maybe that's how he stays so supple," Michelle replied with a wink back.

 

 

> _Unfortunately for Lucy, Tim couldn't hear her because he was under the spell of Pat's tacky little brooch. He stopped walking when he reached Pat's side._
> 
> _"How do you like them apples, Lucy Radcliffe?" Pat cackled again. Then the floor between Pat and the five remaining agents disappeared. The agents stood on a small piece of floor that was surrounded by a pit of fiery lava and then some jail bars rose up from the floor, surrounding them. The five agents looked around, confused. Then some shackles appeared and the five agents were shackled to the bars._
> 
> _"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," Pat cackled again. "Now you're stuck there and you can't do anything about it. Tim Main is all mine and tomorrow at sunrise, we're going to get married. And you can't do anything about it, Lucy Radcliffe. So there! Pat Murphy always gets what she wants. You stopped me from getting Tim Main before. Not this time, Lucy." Then she grabbed the zombified Tim Main and dragged him by the collar out of the room._
> 
> _"Oh no!" wailed Vi. "We'll never get out of here! I'm scared, Bart!"_
> 
> _"Calm down," Ryan said. "We'll think of a way to escape. We always do, right?"_
> 
> _"Right," Bunny replied, giving Ryan an admiring look. Bunny thought Ryan was so smart and so brave for being so calm in the face of danger. "We'll think of a way, right Lucy? Lucy?"_
> 
> _Lucy's eyes were filled with tears._
> 
> _"Lucy," Bunny said sympathetically. "It's going to be okay. We'll get out of here and we'll stop that wedding and then Tim will get back to normal and then he will look at you fondly again like none of this ever happened. Cheer up, Lucy."_
> 
> _Bart had been playing around with his shackles. "It's going to take longer than I thought," he said grimly. "These shackles are pretty tight."_

Dan started laughing again. "Playing around with his shackles?" he said. "You know how dirty that sounds?"

Michelle swatted his arm playfully. "You're terrible," she said with a laugh.

"Yeah, but you love me," Dan said.

 

> _"Maybe we can call for help?" Bunny suggested._
> 
> _"How?" Vi wailed. "We can't reach our communicators to call."_
> 
> _"No," Bunny said. "And stop wailing, Vi. But I've got on my bracelet. The special one that I used to keep losing all the time and that one time Lucy thought that Stan stole it from me before we found out that he was just an undercover agent who infiltrated the Ranch Hands when we were investigating the Robbery in Romania but we thought he actually was one of the Ranch Hands and it was really Duke who stole it from me."_
> 
> _"What did she just say?" Bart asked Ryan. Ryan only shrugged._

"Good question," Dan remarked. "What  _did_  she just say?"

"It's Bunny-Speak," Michelle said.

"What?" Dan wondered.

"Bunny-Speak," Michelle explained. "Run on sentences and roundabout thoughts."

"But what did she just say?" Dan asked again.

Michelle took a deep breath. "She was talking about the  _Robbery in Romania_. In that book, Lucy and the gang had to stop a group of the Mafia named the Ranch Hands. Bunny's bracelet got stolen and they all thought it was one of the Ranch Hands, but it was really Stan Donnegan, who was only undercover as one of the Ranch Hands and not really one of them. Get that?"

"I think so," Dan replied, still confused. For as long as he lived, he'd never understand this Lucy Radcliffe book series.

 

 

> _Lucy brightened considerably. "Bunny, you're a genius!" she exclaimed_
> 
> _Bunny started wiggling around. "If I just move my wrists around like this," she said. "I can use the shackles to hit the button that will send a signal back to Headquarters to Stan and Giselle and Miss Sisk. They'll get the signal and then Stan and Giselle can come and save us and help us save Tim from the Nasty Double Agent Pat Murphy."_
> 
> _Back at Headquarters, Stan, Giselle, and Miss Sisk were gathered around a table._
> 
> _"The signal was traced from a cave just outside of Calcutta," Miss Sisk explained. "The back-up jet is being fueled up as we speak."_
> 
> _"The back-up jet?" Giselle wondered._
> 
> _"Yeah," Stan said. "The Jalopy."_

"The Jalopy?" Dan asked.

"It was a piece of junk," Michelle replied. "It had a nasty habit of backfiring and breaking down, so it was just the back-up jet."

"A friend of mine used to have a car like that," Dan mused. "He was always fixing it."

 

 

> _"Your gear is being stowed in there as we speak, too," Miss Sisk replied. Then she looked at the two young agents gravely. "This will be a very dangerous mission. Free Lucy and the others and help them stop Pat Murphy. She must not marry Tim Main. The safety of the world is depending on the two of you. I wish you both Godspeed."_
> 
> _"We won't let you down," Stan declared. And with that, the two young agents were off to the back-up jet and on their way to Calcutta._
> 
>  
> 
> _The journey to Calcutta was a long one. Twice, they had to land the jet to have a mechanic look at it because the engine was not firing on all of its cylinders. Stan and Giselle did not reach Calcutta until close to dawn. They followed the map that Miss Sisk had given them and they found themselves perched on a cliff, looking down at what appeared to be an outdoor wedding that hadn't started yet. There were lots of guests in fancy clothes sitting in white chairs. They were going to have to save Tim first._
> 
> _"Look!" Giselle exclaimed pointing her well-manicured finger at the white painted wooden arch that was brought in from the United States for the ceremony. "There's Tim!"_
> 
> _"I see that," Stan said. "And he's wearing a tux, too. But he looks like a zombie."_
> 
> _Then they heard the swell of organ music playing and they watched as a blonde woman with bouffant hair that was not as nice looking as Giselle's bouffant hair walked down the aisle in a white wedding dress._
> 
> _"And there's the Nasty Double Agent Pat Murphy!" Stan exclaimed._
> 
> _"And she's wearing a designer knock-off wedding dress, too," Giselle said, wrinkling her nose. "But what's that pinned to the front of her dress?" Giselle reached into her Chanel handbag that matched her Chanel suit, which, despite the plane trip and the trek to their current location on the cliff, still looked freshly pressed, and she pulled out a dainty pair of binoculars. She peered through them at the action below._
> 
> _"That is the ugliest brooch I've ever seen in my life," she said with distaste. "It doesn't even go with her dress at all!"_
> 
> _"Let me see," Stan said, taking the binoculars from Giselle. He looked through them, and then he realized that he was holding a really girlie pair of binoculars, so he reached over to his belt to get his pair. He took a look through them. "Yep, that's a really ugly piece of jewelry," he said. "I've never seen a shade of green that weird in my life. See how it glows?" Then Stan was struck by a thought when he noticed how the Zombie Tim was staring at the hideous piece of jewelry. "Hey! I bet she uses that to keep Tim as a zombie!"_
> 
> _Giselle put her binoculars back into her purse. "You're right, Stan!" she exclaimed. "We've got to get that brooch away from her and I bet Tim goes back to normal." Then she pursed her lips together because she was thinking. Stan thought that she looked really, really cute when she did that._
> 
> _Stan didn't need to think. He reached into his belt and pulled out a cable that had a hook on the end of it._
> 
> _"What are you doing?' Giselle wondered_
> 
> _"We're going to crash the wedding," Stan replied. "And we're going to do it when the minister gets to the part of 'speak now or forever hold your peace', too."_
> 
> _"Nothing quite like a dramatic entrance," Giselle remarked with a smile. Stan was so smart!_
> 
> _"Except," Stan said. "We can't hear anything from up here, so I guess we'll just have to wing it."_
> 
> _"No we won't," Giselle said. She pointed at one of her earrings. Giselle wore a pair of pearl earrings in each earlobe. She gave one of the pearl earrings a twist. "Now I can hear what's going on. When the minister gets to that part of the ceremony, I'll let you know."_
> 
> _"Good idea," Stan said. Giselle was so smart for a girl!_
> 
> _Stan tossed the cable towards a very sturdy tree branch. The cable wrapped around the tree limb and it was held securely by the hook. Then he took Giselle by the waist, and Giselle hoped that she wasn't blushing because she didn't want Stan to see her blushing. Giselle wrapped her arms around Stan. Then, because she was feeling bold, she gave Stan a kiss on the cheek._
> 
> _"What was that for?" Stan wondered, hoping that he wasn't blushing either because he didn't want Giselle to see him blushing._
> 
> _"For good luck," Giselle replied. Then she heard the minister begin, "If anyone can show reason…"_
> 
> _"Now!" Giselle said and then the two of them swung on the cable from the top of the cliff down into the wedding ceremony below._
> 
> _"What's this?" Pat Murphy shrieked._
> 
> _"We object," Stan said._
> 
> _"On the grounds that the groom is a zombie," Giselle added. She discreetly brought a hand up to check if her pillbox hat had come off during the trip down. It was still there. And her hair was still in place, too._
> 
> _"You can't do this!" Pat shrieked._
> 
> _"Sure we can," Giselle replied._
> 
> _"Who are you anyway?" Pat demanded._
> 
> _Stan and Giselle exchanged glances. "Your doom, Pat Murphy," Stan said_
> 
> _Giselle walked up to the fuming bride. "Has anyone ever told you that you have really bad taste in jewelry?" she asked right before she ripped the brooch from Pat's dress._
> 
> _"You can't do this!" Pat shrieked in a voice that sounded like someone scratching their fingernails down the chalkboard at school._
> 
> _"Too late," Giselle said. "I already did." Giselle took the brooch, dropped it to the ground and she crushed it into dust with her shoe._
> 
> _"Wow," Stan said. "That's some shoe."_
> 
> _"They're custom made," Giselle smiled._
> 
> _"Where am I?" they heard Tim say. Tim looked around confused. "Why am I wearing a tux? Why is Pat Murphy here in a wedding dress?" Then he saw the other two agents. "And what are you doing here?"_
> 
> _"Saving you," Stan replied. "Now come on," he added. "We've got to save Lucy and the others."_
> 
> _"Lucy's in trouble?" Tim asked._
> 
> _"Yes," Giselle said. "She is. And we have to save them. And fast, too."_
> 
> _"Not so fast," Pat Murphy said. "You ruined my wedding and I demand satisfaction."_
> 
> _Giselle stepped up to the nasty double agent and looked her right in the eye. "All right then," she said. "Name the time and the place."_
> 
> _"Noon," Pat said. "Downtown Calcutta. Anything goes. Winner gets Tim Main."_
> 
> _Giselle didn't even blink. "You're on," she said. Right then and there both Tim and Stan thought that Giselle was very brave. But Stan also thought she was very cute, too. He made up his mind that when they got back to Headquarters, he was going to ask Giselle out on a date._
> 
> _"Come on," Tim said. "Let's go save the others."_

"She's demanding satisfaction?" Dan hooted. "They're having a duel?" He threw his head back and roared with laughter.

Michelle tried rolling her eyes at Dan, but gave up and started laughing herself. "Yep. Pistols at ten paces and in Downtown Calcutta, too!"

 

> _The three agents consulted the map that Miss Sisk had given Stan and Giselle. Soon they reached the mouth of the cave where Lucy and the others were._
> 
> _"Do you remember how to get in there?" Stan asked Tim._
> 
> _"I think so," Tim said. "Follow me." Tim led Stan and Giselle into the cave and soon they reached the big room and they saw the small piece of floor that had the bars and the other five agents shackled inside the cell._
> 
> _"There they are!" Bunny exclaimed. "I knew Stan and Giselle would come for us!"_
> 
> _"And they found Tim, too!" exclaimed Vi._
> 
> _"You're idea worked, Bunny," Ryan said admiringly. "Good thinking_
> 
> _"It was nothing," Bunny said humbly._
> 
> _"Nothing?" Lucy exclaimed. "They're here to save us and they've got Tim and he looks normal, too, and not like a zombie anymore!" Then she looked at Tim again. "Doesn't he look so handsome in that tux?"_
> 
> _Ryan and Bart rolled their eyes. "He sure does," Vi agreed._
> 
> _"Hey!" Bart said. "What am I? Chopped liver?"_
> 
> _"Stop arguing," Ryan said._
> 
> _Meanwhile, on the other side of the lava pit, Tim, Stan, and Giselle were trying to hatch a plan._
> 
> _"How are we going to get across that lava pit?" Giselle wondered._
> 
> _"We could swing across it like you two did when you stopped the wedding," Tim suggested._

Dan set the notebook down. "Maybe Tim's suppleness can save the day," he quipped. "Or maybe his huskiness will save them all." He paused, as if he was taken by a sudden thought. "How can one person be supple, yet husky at the same time?" he wondered. "Aren't they the opposite in meaning?"

"What do you mean?" Michelle asked.

"Well, someone who is husky is big and bulky," Dan said. "And someone who is supple is usually long and lean. So how can he be both?"

"I dunno," Michelle replied. "That's how he was described in the books. One book said he was husky and another said he was supple."

"Great," Dan said. "This is going to bother me all day now."

"Try not to think about it," Michelle replied. "You'll just get a migraine if you do."

 

 

> _"All three of us at the same time?" Giselle wondered. "Stan is strong, but that's a lot of weight to carry, even for him. And will the cable hold?"_
> 
> _"I don't have a cable," Stan said. "It's still back at the wedding site."_
> 
> _"Well," Tim said. "I remember that when we first came in here, there was no lava pit. So there must be some kind of switch to make the rest of the floor reappear again or maybe a bridge or something like that."_
> 
> _"But where?" Giselle wondered._
> 
> _"I don't know," Tim said. "I don't remember the floor disappearing."_
> 
> _"Then we'll have to look for one," Stan said._
> 
> _Giselle looked at Stan admiringly. He was so smart! "Good idea," she said. "We should split up, though, and it will go faster."_
> 
> _"Good idea, Giselle," Stan replied admiringly. Giselle was so smart!_
> 
> _The three agents split up and searched the walls for any type of hidden switch. They were having no luck and the three were soon becoming very frustrated. They were regrouping to put their heads together and think of another plan to rescue their friends, but on the way back, Tim tripped over something and fell flat on his face. His face turned as red as his hair because he was embarrassed to have tripped in front of the other agents, but especially in front of Lucy._
> 
> _"Darn it," he said. "I'm not usually so clumsy."_
> 
> _But the floor started to shake a bit before they all heard the sound of rock scraping together. Right in front of them, out of the edge of the floor came a rock bridge that was extending to the other piece of floor where Lucy and the others were._
> 
> _"Tim, you're a genius!" Giselle exclaimed. "Look! You found the switch! There's a bridge!"_
> 
> _"But look how thin it is," Stan pointed out. "I don't think all three of us can get across it at the same time."_
> 
> _"Then we'll go one at a time," Tim said. "I'll go first."_
> 
> _Carefully, Tim stepped onto the stone bridge that was not very wide. It felt like he was walking along a tightrope. But he made it safely across the fiery lava pit._
> 
> _"Come on," he urged Stan and Giselle._
> 
> _"You go," Stan said. "I'll be right behind you."_
> 
> _Giselle looked fearfully at the narrow rock bridge. "I can't," she said. "Not in these shoes."_
> 
> _"Sheesh," Stan said. "Now is not the time to worry about scuffing up your shoes, Giselle."_
> 
> _"It's not that," Giselle explained. "I can't walk something that thin in high heels," she said._
> 
> _"Well, take them off," Stan suggested._
> 
> _"I can't," Giselle said. "Where would I put them? And I might need them later."_
> 
> _"Why?" Stan wondered. "Do you plan on crushing any more ugly pieces of jewelry?"_
> 
> _"No," Giselle said. "But I've got weapons in there."_
> 
> _"Good point," Stan said. "I'll help you."_
> 
> _"But the bridge might not hold both of us at the same time," Giselle said nervously._
> 
> _"Well, that's a chance I'm willing to take," Stan said_
> 
> _"You'd do that?" Giselle said. "For me?" Stan was so brave!_
> 
> _"Sure," Stan said. Then he held out his hand to Giselle and she took it._
> 
> _Slowly and carefully, the two agents inched their way across the bridge. Giselle felt herself slipping a couple of times because she couldn't balance herself with those high heels on but Stan caught her. They were about halfway across when they heard the rock starting to crumble. Bits of it on the side they started out on crumbled into the lava._
> 
> _"Hurry!" Tim urged._
> 
> _"We're trying," Stan said._
> 
> _As the two agents inched their way across the bridge, more pieces of rock crumbled and fell away. They were almost to the other side when there was no more rock between Giselle and the side of the pit they started from._
> 
> _"Hurry!" Tim urged again. Time was running out and he didn't want to have to go back to Headquarters and try to explain to Miss Sisk why two of her agents were dead because they fell into a pit of fiery lava. And he did not want Pat Murphy to win the duel by default, either._
> 
> _A piece of rock that was under Giselle's foot crumbled away and she almost lost her balance again, but Stan pulled her away just in time. Then more rock started to crumble, forcing Giselle to jump into Stan's arms. The fragile rock creaked and groaned under Stan's feet and just as it gave way, he jumped over to the other side where he made it safely to Tim and the others. He set Giselle down on her feet and she gave him another kiss on the cheek. "You're so brave, Stan," she said. Stan's cheeks turned pink._
> 
> _"We have to hurry and free the others," Tim reminded them. "Now how are we going to get that cage unlocked?"_
> 
> _Giselle reached into her hair and pulled out a hairpin. "Leave it to me," she said. She went to the cage and picked the lock with the hairpin. The five agents in the cage cheered when they heard the click. Then the door was opened and Tim, Stan, and Giselle went inside. Giselle took her trusty hairpin and started freeing the others. As soon as Lucy was free, she ran to Tim and she threw her arms around his neck and she exclaimed, "Thank goodness you're safe!"_
> 
> _Tim just looked at Lucy fondly._

"You know," Dan said. "This Tim guy seems to only give Lucy fond looks. I wonder if he's..."

"I wouldn't go there if I were you," Michelle replied. "Not if you value your life."

 

 

> _"There's no time for that," Bart reminded Tim. "Let's get out of here."_
> 
> _"You're right, Bart," Stan agreed. "Giselle has that duel at noon and we don’t have much time to waste."_
> 
> _"Duel?" Lucy asked. "What duel?"_
> 
> _"Pat Murphy demanded satisfaction for us ruining her wedding," Stan explained. "So she challenged Giselle to a duel at high noon in downtown Calcutta. It's anything goes and the winner gets Tim Main."_
> 
> _"Oh no," Lucy said._
> 
> _"Don't worry," Giselle replied. "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. Pat Murphy will never win."_
> 
> _"But how are we going to get across," wailed Vi. "The bridge is gone!"_
> 
> _Bart reached into his belt and produced a cable with a hook on the end of it. "We'll swing across," he said. "And we'll take turns." He threw the cable up and it wrapped around a beam. He reached a hand out to Vi. "Ready?"_
> 
> _Vi gulped and said, "I guess."_
> 
> _Bart pulled her closer to him and when he was ready and she was ready, he took a jump and he and Vi swung across the lava pit safely to the other side. Then Bart tossed the cable back and Ryan caught it._
> 
> _"Ready?" Ryan asked Bunny_
> 
> _Bunny held on to Ryan. "Ready," she said confidently. Then Ryan and Bunny swung across the lava pit and were safe on the other side. Ryan tossed the cable back across the lava pit. Tim caught it this time._
> 
> _"Ready?" he asked Lucy while looking at her fondly again._
> 
> _Lucy grabbed onto Tim. "Ready," she said. Lucy thought Tim looked so handsome in that tux. And then Lucy and Tim swung across the fiery lava pit and landed safely on the other side. Then Tim tossed the cable back across the lava pit and Stan caught it._
> 
> _He looked at Giselle who had already grabbed onto him. "When we get done with this, will you go out on a date with me?"_
> 
> _"What?" Bart exclaimed from the other side. "There's no time for that, Stan!"_
> 
> _Vi shushed him. "Well, I think it's romantic," she said._
> 
> _"I'd love to," Giselle smiled at Stan. Stan smiled back and he was relieved. Then he asked. "Ready?"_
> 
> _"Ready," Giselle replied. Then the two of them swung across the lava pit and landed safely on the other side. Stan handed the cable back to Bart, who retracted it and tucked it back in his belt._
> 
> _The eight agents hurried out of the cave and made their way to downtown Calcutta._

 

> _Pat Murphy was waiting for them. She was surprised to see that Lucy and the others were free. That was not good. But she'd take out that other agent, the one wearing the Chanel suit._
> 
> _"All right," Pat said. "Let's get this underway."_
> 
> _Downtown Calcutta was deserted except for the people who had gathered to watch the duel between the Nasty Double Agent Pat Murphy and Agent Giselle O'Ryan of the WGB._
> 
> _The two stood facing each other. Pat had changed into a Christian Dior dress, Giselle noticed. The two women stared at each other for a long time, neither of them blinking or moving. Giselle thought that maybe if she stared at Pat Murphy long enough, the other woman would look away and Giselle could make her move. But it didn't happen._

"You know," Dan pointed out. "That's not what a duel is. It's a showdown."

"I know that now," Michelle said. "I guess I watched too many Westerns when I was a kid."

"I'm sort of expecting to see some tumbleweed drift past and the theme from 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly' playing in the background," Dan remarked with a chuckle.

 

> _Giselle looked out of the corner of her eye at her fellow agents. Then she was distracted by some tumbleweed that drifted down the dusty streets of Calcutta._

Dan set the notebook down and started laughing. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't. When he tried, he just started laughing again.

"What?" Michelle wondered.

Dan couldn't speak. He just pointed at those words on the page. Michelle saw them. "Oh yeah," she said. "The tumbleweed." She chuckled a bit. "I thought it might add a bit of atmosphere." Then she started laughing a little harder. Dan's laughter was infectious. Michelle started laughing even harder.

"Please don't tell me that Little Joe and Hoss show up later watering their horses in the Ganges River," Dan gasped between bouts of laughter.

"It's pretty safe to say they don’t," Michelle replied between bouts of her own laughter.

 

 

> _That was a mistake because suddenly the crowd gasped. Giselle saw that Pat was brandishing a pistol in her hand._
> 
> _"Tim Main is mine," she said. Then she smirked, noticing Giselle's surprised reaction to the pistol. "Anything goes, remember? And I don't play by the rules, either." Pat pulled back the hammer on her pistol. Then suddenly, the pistol went flying out of her hands._
> 
> _Nobody saw it, but Giselle had reached into one of her shoes and pulled out a special, hide-out nail file she kept hidden there. She had such fast reflexes; it didn't even look like she moved at all. The crowd gasped again._

"Didn't see that gag coming," Dan remarked dryly. Michelle gave him a playful swat on the arm.

 

 

> _Giselle walked over to the defeated Pat Murphy and slapped a pair of handcuffs on the other woman. "I win," she said to Pat. Then she said, "Take her away." Some official type looking men came and dragged the now shrieking Pat Murphy away._
> 
> _The other agents rushed out to Giselle. Stan especially thought that Giselle was so brave. But Giselle wasn't quite finished yet._
> 
> _"I can't keep the prize for winning this duel," she said. "So I hereby award the spoils to Lucy Radcliffe." She smiled at Lucy. "Winner gets Tim Main, remember?"_
> 
> _"I remember," Lucy replied. "And thank you."_
> 
> _"Pat won't be bothering us anymore," Giselle said._
> 
> _"Where are they taking her?" Lucy wondered._
> 
> _"To prison," Giselle replied. "Where she will stay for a good long time."_
> 
> _"On what charges?" Bunny wondered._
> 
> _"Interfering with canon and wearing white after Labor Day," Giselle replied_
> 
> _"Those are some pretty serious charges," Vi remarked._
> 
> _"I'll say," Bunny replied._
> 
> _"Come on," Bart urged. "Let's go back to Headquarters."_
> 
> _After that, Stan and Giselle went out on their date and they had a good time. So then they went out on another date and also had a good time. Then they went out on lots of dates and they always had a good time. They kept doing this until one day, Stan asked Giselle to go steady with him and she said yes and he gave her his special secret agent decoder ring and then she was his special girl. Then they went on more dates. Sometimes they went to the drive-in and sometimes they went to places like the Peppermint Lounge and then Stan got to meet a lot of famous people, too._
> 
> _After the Inquisition in India, Stan didn't get to go along on very many missions because Miss Sisk told him that he had to mind the store while the others were gone. Giselle stayed back at Headquarters to keep Stan company while the others were out saving the world._
> 
> _And they all lived happily ever after._
> 
> **_The End_ **

Dan put down the notebook. "That was…"

"Come on, you can say it," Michelle said. "It was bad. It was bad and cringe worthy and it sucks."

"Yeah," Dan said. "It was pretty bad. Bad in an unintentionally funny sort of way. Are there any more of these?"

"You want to read those, too?" Michelle asked incredulously.

"Sure," Dan said. "They're not very good, but they're kind of entertaining in a way, almost like a B-grade movie."

"I don't know if I have any more," Michelle said. "I mean, really, I don't know if I still have the other ones."

"Did you ever write anymore after this one?"

"No," Michelle said. "I gave up my career as a fantasy Lucy Radcliffe author not long after that." Her face fell a bit as she remembered some of the not so nice things that happened to her when she entered high school.

"Nothing?" Dan asked. "So what ever happened to Stan and Giselle?"

"They lived happily ever after," Michelle said. "That's all I know." Michelle moved just a little closer to Dan. "You know," she said. "You kind of remind me of Stan Donnegan."

"Oh really," Dan said. "And how is that?"

"Tall, dark, and handsome," Michelle said with a smile. "And smart and brave, too."

"You think so?" Dan asked. Then he smiled.

"Yep," Michelle replied. "Except you're the real deal." She leaned in closer and kissed Dan slowly. Dan returned her kiss. Then they sat next to each other and Michelle rested her head on Dan's shoulder, while Dan put his arm around her shoulders.

After awhile of sitting together like that, Michelle said, "Those boxes aren't going to unpack themselves. I suppose we should get back to that."

"I suppose," Dan said, with some reluctance. "You don't have any more embarrassing things in there from when you were fourteen, do you?"

"Oh, I just might," Michelle said. She leaned over, grabbed hold of the box, and pulled it closer to her. "Let's see what else is in here."

**The End**

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted in 2005. 
> 
> Before the Internet, people wrote fan fiction. I did. It stayed hidden because there was no place to share it. In the early 2000's, writing fan fiction was different than it is now. There was no Tumblr, no AO3, and there were rules. Thankfully, many of those rules were deemed stupid and done away with. 
> 
> Michelle, the character, is an OC, but back when I wrote her, people referred to OC's as "Mary Sue's". Mary Sue's are all OC's, but not all OC's are Mary Sue's. Mary Sue/Gary Stu is a type of character who is poorly developed and is basically wish fulfillment for the author. He/She gets away with things that a fully-fleshed out OC doesn't. 
> 
> "Lucy Radcliffe" was a fictional book series that Trixie Belden read and was a fan of. Many people have interpreted a fictional Lucy Radcliffe series to be a parody of the BWG's. That was the route I chose when I wrote the fic within a fic. 
> 
> Thank you for the kudos. :) It means a lot that people still like something I wrote 15 years ago. :)


End file.
